Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS

Agneta Grimby; Åsa K. Johansson; Ulf Johansson

doi:doi:10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

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Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS

Agneta Grimby, Åsa K. Johansson, Ulf Johansson

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 3)

Received: 6 April 2015 Accepted: 26 April 2015 Published: 16 May 2015

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Abstract

A postal survey was sent to close relatives of Swedish patients with ALS and progressive MS to assess preparatory grief according to the Anticipatory Grief Scale (AGS), together with age, relationship, duration of the illnesses, perceived quality of care, present need of care, caregiver burden, and need of support. The relatives in the two illness groups generally responded in similar ways on the AGS, e.g. reporting closeness, preoccupation, tearfulness, and feelings of injustice regarding the illness. More MS relatives agreed on being irritable and wondering about life without the disease; they reported increased competence, but less ability to move ahead with life. The relatives’ need to talk to somebody outside the family and the hospital staff was more frequently reported by the MS relatives than by the ALS relatives. Overall, the need to talk correlated to feelings of loneliness, longing, tearfulness, loss of interest in daily activities, worries for the future, irritability and sleeping problems. However, surprisingly many of the ALS and MS relatives reported planning for the future and had discovered new personal resources after the diagnose, possibly indicating an overweight of responders adjusted to the situation and therefore expressing less sorrow.

Published in	Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
Page(s)	125-131
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Anticipatory Grief, ALS, MS, Close Relatives, Need of Care, Caregiver Burden, Support

References

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APA Style

Agneta Grimby, Åsa K. Johansson, Ulf Johansson. (2015). Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 4(3), 125-131. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

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ACS Style

Agneta Grimby; Åsa K. Johansson; Ulf Johansson. Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2015, 4(3), 125-131. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

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AMA Style

Agneta Grimby, Åsa K. Johansson, Ulf Johansson. Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS. Psychol Behav Sci. 2015;4(3):125-131. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

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@article{10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16,
  author = {Agneta Grimby and Åsa K. Johansson and Ulf Johansson},
  title = {Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS},
  journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
  volume = {4},
  number = {3},
  pages = {125-131},
  doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20150403.16},
  abstract = {A postal survey was sent to close relatives of Swedish patients with ALS and progressive MS to assess preparatory grief according to the Anticipatory Grief Scale (AGS), together with age, relationship, duration of the illnesses, perceived quality of care, present need of care, caregiver burden, and need of support. The relatives in the two illness groups generally responded in similar ways on the AGS, e.g. reporting closeness, preoccupation, tearfulness, and feelings of injustice regarding the illness. More MS relatives agreed on being irritable and wondering about life without the disease; they reported increased competence, but less ability to move ahead with life. The relatives’ need to talk to somebody outside the family and the hospital staff was more frequently reported by the MS relatives than by the ALS relatives. Overall, the need to talk correlated to feelings of loneliness, longing, tearfulness, loss of interest in daily activities, worries for the future, irritability and sleeping problems. However, surprisingly many of the ALS and MS relatives reported planning for the future and had discovered new personal resources after the diagnose, possibly indicating an overweight of responders adjusted to the situation and therefore expressing less sorrow.},
 year = {2015}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS
AU  - Agneta Grimby
AU  - Åsa K. Johansson
AU  - Ulf Johansson
Y1  - 2015/05/16
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
SP  - 125
EP  - 131
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-7845
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
AB  - A postal survey was sent to close relatives of Swedish patients with ALS and progressive MS to assess preparatory grief according to the Anticipatory Grief Scale (AGS), together with age, relationship, duration of the illnesses, perceived quality of care, present need of care, caregiver burden, and need of support. The relatives in the two illness groups generally responded in similar ways on the AGS, e.g. reporting closeness, preoccupation, tearfulness, and feelings of injustice regarding the illness. More MS relatives agreed on being irritable and wondering about life without the disease; they reported increased competence, but less ability to move ahead with life. The relatives’ need to talk to somebody outside the family and the hospital staff was more frequently reported by the MS relatives than by the ALS relatives. Overall, the need to talk correlated to feelings of loneliness, longing, tearfulness, loss of interest in daily activities, worries for the future, irritability and sleeping problems. However, surprisingly many of the ALS and MS relatives reported planning for the future and had discovered new personal resources after the diagnose, possibly indicating an overweight of responders adjusted to the situation and therefore expressing less sorrow.
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Author Information

Agneta Grimby

Department of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden
Åsa K. Johansson
Ulf Johansson

Department of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden

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APA Style

Agneta Grimby, Åsa K. Johansson, Ulf Johansson. (2015). Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 4(3), 125-131. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

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ACS Style

Agneta Grimby; Åsa K. Johansson; Ulf Johansson. Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2015, 4(3), 125-131. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

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AMA Style

Agneta Grimby, Åsa K. Johansson, Ulf Johansson. Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS. Psychol Behav Sci. 2015;4(3):125-131. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16,
  author = {Agneta Grimby and Åsa K. Johansson and Ulf Johansson},
  title = {Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS},
  journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
  volume = {4},
  number = {3},
  pages = {125-131},
  doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20150403.16},
  abstract = {A postal survey was sent to close relatives of Swedish patients with ALS and progressive MS to assess preparatory grief according to the Anticipatory Grief Scale (AGS), together with age, relationship, duration of the illnesses, perceived quality of care, present need of care, caregiver burden, and need of support. The relatives in the two illness groups generally responded in similar ways on the AGS, e.g. reporting closeness, preoccupation, tearfulness, and feelings of injustice regarding the illness. More MS relatives agreed on being irritable and wondering about life without the disease; they reported increased competence, but less ability to move ahead with life. The relatives’ need to talk to somebody outside the family and the hospital staff was more frequently reported by the MS relatives than by the ALS relatives. Overall, the need to talk correlated to feelings of loneliness, longing, tearfulness, loss of interest in daily activities, worries for the future, irritability and sleeping problems. However, surprisingly many of the ALS and MS relatives reported planning for the future and had discovered new personal resources after the diagnose, possibly indicating an overweight of responders adjusted to the situation and therefore expressing less sorrow.},
 year = {2015}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Anticipatory Grief Among Close Relatives of Patients with ALS and MS
AU  - Agneta Grimby
AU  - Åsa K. Johansson
AU  - Ulf Johansson
Y1  - 2015/05/16
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
SP  - 125
EP  - 131
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-7845
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150403.16
AB  - A postal survey was sent to close relatives of Swedish patients with ALS and progressive MS to assess preparatory grief according to the Anticipatory Grief Scale (AGS), together with age, relationship, duration of the illnesses, perceived quality of care, present need of care, caregiver burden, and need of support. The relatives in the two illness groups generally responded in similar ways on the AGS, e.g. reporting closeness, preoccupation, tearfulness, and feelings of injustice regarding the illness. More MS relatives agreed on being irritable and wondering about life without the disease; they reported increased competence, but less ability to move ahead with life. The relatives’ need to talk to somebody outside the family and the hospital staff was more frequently reported by the MS relatives than by the ALS relatives. Overall, the need to talk correlated to feelings of loneliness, longing, tearfulness, loss of interest in daily activities, worries for the future, irritability and sleeping problems. However, surprisingly many of the ALS and MS relatives reported planning for the future and had discovered new personal resources after the diagnose, possibly indicating an overweight of responders adjusted to the situation and therefore expressing less sorrow.
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download